Baby Hensley's First Dresses!

Baby Hensley's first outfits...picked out by her big brothers.  

This is so fun!

Baby # 4 is a...

GIRL!!

{Baby Girl Gifford is waving at you}

We have never done this before but we scheduled a gender ultrasound this time.  It has always frustrated me how all my Florida friends find out several weeks before I do what they are having.  My sister had the idea that we should just pay and have an ultrasound done so we could find out sooner....so that is what we did.  We were beginning to wonder if we were even going to get to find out today.  Baby girl is so ladylike that she didn't want to uncross her legs.  Finally after me turning side to side and walking around she decided to cooperate.

Eric and I have been so nervous.  It has been such mixed emotions because our hearts desire has always been to have a daughter at some point.  After being told we would never get pregnant again...we didn't know if that would happen.  I was so afraid of my reaction if this baby was a boy.  I feel so blessed to even be pregnant and the last thing I wanted was to seem ungrateful.  BUT I have 3 boys, who wouldn't want a little girl?  

My Dad's wife Elsie, told me when I first got pregnant that she knew this was going to be a girl.  She said that I had to have faith and speak it out loud.  I began to do that...but only by myself.  I began to speak it and believe it.  I had this feeling that this was our girl but I didn't know if it was because I wanted it so badly or because I had faith (it can be very confusing).

My Mom sent me an email last week that talked about Hannah (1 Samuel 1:10-11) and how she was barren and prayed and begged God to give her a son.  She promised Him that if He did, she would give him back to the Lord.  The title of my Mom's email was, "It's ok to ask God for a girl."  Honestly, that made me feel so much better because that is what I was already thinking/praying.

Last night, Gavin asked me if he could pray for the baby.  He put his little hands on my tummy and said, "Dear God, we aren't asking for much but could you please give us a little girl.  We love you.  Amen." So simple and yet so heartfelt.  He then told me that he hoped when I picked him up from school that I would still be crying because I was so happy.

When I picked Gavin up from school, of course the first thing he wanted to know was "what is it?" I told him that the baby in Mommy's tummy was a girl.  He was so excited, he was screaming.  He asked if we cried and I told him that we held back tears, he said he was holding back tears too.  I told him that Jesus had heard our prayers and he loves us so much that he gave us what we asked him for.  Our wise beyond his years 7 year old said, "yep, just like the Bible says, ask and it will be given to you."

The way that all of this has happened is just so...God.  This is the perfect ending to His story.

Growing up...I always wanted to be a Mom.  

I can remember as a little girl carrying my cabbage patch doll, Emma around church.  

She had green eyes and blonde hair just like me.  

I never had these big ambitions for a career...I always just wanted to be a Mom.  

Fast forward several years and after struggling with years of infertility and having 2 surgeries we were given the gift of 3 amazing sons.  

I was told that my baby having days are most likely over, that I will not ovulate anymore.  

Eric and I still had a desire to add a daughter to our family, a baby sister for all these big brothers to protect.

We start discussing going back to the fertility Doctor.  

Then without even trying we become pregnant, a surprise miracle pregnancy.

God loves us so much, He remembered that little girl carrying her baby doll around.  

He knew that we wanted a daughter and he blessed us with one.  

A perfect ending to His story and a perfect completion to our family.  

We are all so grateful for baby Hensley Faith Gifford.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)

Easter!

We had a great Easter! 

Saturday night we made Resurrection Rolls.  The boys LOVED them.  It was a great way to remind them what Easter is truly about.  The past few years we have made something similar but they were cookies....lets just say the rolls taste MUCH better.  They were so excited to pull them out of the oven and I was so afraid someone was going to get burnt.  Someone did.....me!  I got a pretty good burn on the inside of my arm right at my elbow.  I will have a nice scar and will never forget what Easter is really about.  

The next morning the Easter bunny had delivered the baskets to their rooms...which they thought was pretty cool.  Mommy was a little upset with Mr. Bunny because I couldn't capture their reactions and since I was frantically trying to get myself dressed before they woke up I didn't even get a picture of them...ugh.  

We had an amazing service at OneLife (as usual) and then had lunch at PF Changs...YUM!  After that we came home and took a nap (3/5ths of us did anyway...the other 2 pigged out on candy and kept Mommy from sleeping).  

Sunday evening we went out to Mamaw and Papaw's house for pictures, dinner and an Easter egg hunt.

It was a great day and the kids had a blast.

{Gavin looking so grown up}

{Nolen-I love his smile...his whole face smiles}

{Brothers}

{Our 3 little men}

{Cohen is a little ball of energy these days}

{Our family of 5 plus a little bump}

{Nolen and his sweet cousin Elliott, so sweet}

{We could not get Cohen interested in finding eggs and putting them in his basket.  He found one egg that looked like a football, threw it and then ran and got it and did it again all while saying "baaalllll"!}

Spring Break 2012

I'm back!  It has been a rough couple of months at the Gifford house.  I have had zero energy and Cohen is at that age where he is in to everything!  I am sure that my family is happy to have me back....they are sick of having nothing to eat in the house and a Mommy who can't get off the couch.
Baby #4 is doing well.  I am 14 weeks and we will be finding out soon what we are having.  We are all very excited about that!

For Spring Break this year we went to home to Florida.  We stayed in Blue Mountain Beach (thanks Holley!) which is our favorite beach ever.  We were down there for Spring Break and pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves.  It was so nice.

This was Cohen's first trip to the beach that he could walk and play in the sand.  Nolen was not fond of the beach at this age at all so I didn't know what Cohen would think.  There was about 30 seconds of reservation and then he was good.  He loved it!

Nolen loves the beach, he does not love the saltwater in his eyes.  I think I wiped his eyes every 5 minutes the whole time we were out there.  This is his face in almost every picture....if it wasn't saltwater it was the sun.  Is it just me or is 5 a whiny age?

Gavin had a broken foot (2 metacarpals) so he was in a cast up to his knee.  We had to order him this little cover thing that you pump all the air out of.  It worked great.  Having that cast on his foot did not slow him down one bit.  He was all over the beach and in the water....running everywhere.

Daddy and little man.

 Gavin is getting so big.

Cohen was dancing to our neighbor beach goers music and face planted in the sand.  As much as he liked the beach....he did not like getting the sand rinsed off his face with freezing cold saltwater.  I don't blame him.

Nolen dancing....with a Lego guy in his hand of course. 

 Eric, some friends of ours and the boys spent about 4 hours making this sand castle.  Unfortunately, Daddy was so sore from bending over for that long that he could hardly walk that night and the next day. Poor Daddy.

We had a great time.  We were not ready to come home.